Revisitation 177: Behind Closed Doors.

9/2/2025

This week, Chromedome and Rewind both end up on the side of a closed door, with devastating results.

Plus, SHOOM! All in my look at More Than Meets the Eye issue 12!

And remember, there's a three week break, now.

2 Comments

Gareth

10/2/2025 06:53:27 pm

This was the first issue of MTMTE I picked up, as one of the regular reviewers was pushing it hard on the old x-fan boards. Brought me back to IDW for good after LSOTW brought me back and Costa nearly made me quit comics for good.
Oddly, I never saw the "back" of the shuttle as lesser lights (what with Mags and Cyclonus in there) just folk who knew what war was. Roberts really seems to be growing in confidence over the last few issues.

Llama God

10/2/2025 07:19:30 pm

This is certainly a cracker of an issue, and as you say a good way to top off a great first 12 months for the title. By this point in the run I was definitely starting to have more confidence that editorial weren't going to do anything dumb, and that they were just going to let the creative teams run without interruption (well, until Dark Cybertron, anyway - but you know). During this point I was also getting the comics delivered by mail, on account of my local FP at the time being incredibly flaky. It was around this time, I think, that I started getting actually excited to find my delivery of TF comics for the month on the doormat - something that actually hadn't happened for the entirety of the IDW run to this point. They were certainly on to something here. (That glee would, of course, turn into abject fear in two or three issues' time - but that's another story, and also testament to the creative team.)

But yes, this is a very good, very clever story. As well as the clever use of two time streams, and the usual gags that are packed in, it's also just incredibly dense - we get to see and learn a lot about a lot of the characters, and there's lots of background stuff that's dropped in in a way that feels so very natural. I really don't have enough praise for Roberts at this point.

What he's also good at doing - and this is something that will really have a massive impact a couple of issues down the line - is juxtaposing very funny moments with some very nasty moments. The reverse of that is with my favourite gag of the issue, which is Swerve losing his face - and the eventual reveal of why it happened. And then there's the lovely stuff with Cyclonus finally opening up a little bit, and then the reveal of how he got to be so wounded, showing both the nastiness of Whirl's actions but also his duplicity - yes, he was a hero for saving Rewind, but he got him in a life threatening situation in the first place. Cyclonus, on the other hand, is soundly dismissed by Chromedome, when in fact he's the reason that Rewind is still alive in the first place. There is just so much to get your teeth into here, it's brilliant.

You could of course argue that some characters that went on to become fan favourites, if they weren't already - Tailgate and Whirl - do some very morally dubious (or not at all dubious) stuff in this issue, but never face the consequences. In a way though, these are events that will kick start other things, which end up becoming more positive, so I guess all's well that end well, or something...

The art of course also needs to be mentioned. I wonder if this was the point that they realised that Milne was starting to have problems keeping up with the monthly schedule with the quality of the art that he was putting out, hence why Cahill was brought in. Or whether a break was just scheduled in anyway, and this was a fortunate happenstance to make it work in an interesting way. Whatever the case, there's some great art in this issue to back up a strong story.

So yeah, all in all, a very (more than) solid issue. And the best is yet to come. Looking forward to getting back to it once you're back from your break, all refreshed and new, as if your own spark had been jumpstarted. Or something.

Revisitation 177: Behind Closed Doors.

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